You can’t say vegan chocolate mousse anymore without mentioning aquafaba, the new vegan egg-white replacement.
Well I suppose it is not that new – been around a while, but I have only recently started working with it.
Just in case you have’nt heard of it, aquafaba – (literally – bean water), is the liquid that we used to pour away every time we opened a tin of chickpeas or beans.
A few years ago some bright person noticed that this liquid resembles egg white, and found that it also behaves the same way, in that you can whip it up into a froth.
So, first my recipe for chocolate mousse, and then a bit more about aquafaba.
Ingredients:
200 grms melted chocolate
2 to 3 T plant milk
50 grms brown sugar
200 grms aquafaba
What to do:
Melt the chocolate with the plant milk in a bain-marie. (Do this very gently. Do not overheat.)
Grind the sugar in a spice or coffee grinder so it is fine.
Whip the aquafaba using an electric beater, in a glass bowl.
Be patient. This doea take time.
Once it starts to thicken and go fluffy, (about 10 mins) add in the sugar a bit at a time, and continue beating.
It will probably take a total of 20 to 25 mins to get to the consistency you want.
Start to fold the fluffy aquafabe bit by bit into the chocolate.
Once the first third is folded in, you can start to add it more quickly, but don’t be too aggressive or the mixture will lose all the air and flatten.
Once all added, pour into individual glasses or bowls and refrigate.
Top with berries to serve.
Some notes:
Chocolate
We used the Lindt 70% or 90% chocolate. When we used the 90% the mousse was very rich indeed.
When melting the chocolate, use a china bowl over the hot water, taking care not to let the hot water touch the bottom of the bowl.
Aquafaba
Quality of aquafaba varies from product to product. If you cook up your own beans, you can use that water as well.
But we have found that it works better if it is reduced/thickened first. So I just keep saving my various bean water, and when I have a batch, heat it up and reduce it to about half. Then cool and freeze it till I need to use it.
For the last chocolate mousse we made I used the reduced liquid from cooking up our own black beans. This of course helped the chocolate colour.
You can use lighter coloured aquafaba, but then your mousse will be slightly lighter in colour.
Another aspect of making the mousse – helps if there are 2 of you. While I was beating the aquafaba, Karen was melting the chocolate.
Bon apetit!
